David And Elton
On page 327 of David Bowie: A Life, the Live Aid show goes down. “There wasn’t much love lost between David and Elton–perhaps they’d fallen out at some point in the past…”
Elton John says he fell out with David Bowie over ‘token queen’ remark “David and I were not the best of friends towards the end. We started out being really good friends. We used to hang out together with Marc Bolan, going to gay clubs, but I think we just drifted apart…. He once called me “rock’n’roll’s token queen” in an interview with Rolling Stone, which I thought was a bit snooty. He wasn’t my cup of tea. No; I wasn’t his cup of tea”.
1975 was a different time. David Bowie was moving out of Ziggy Stardust, and became the Thin White Duke. At some point he starting doing lots of cocaine. On page 196 of DB:AL, Jayne County has stories. “It was pretty obvious the David was taking coke. He became very skeletal in his appearance and began rattling off speeches that sounded meaningless to the rest of us–strange things about witchcraft, demons, and sexual prostitution in ancient times … weird things that made everyone nervous. He began to get paranoid and accusing people of ripping him off and stealing his drugs…. He had to have cartilage removed from one part of his body and put in his nose because the coke had eaten his nose cartilage away.”
While David was popular in 1975, and had a certain aesthetic aroma, Elton John was a phenomenon. Everything Elton touched went to Number One. Elton was one of the most popular solo acts the market ever sold. Maybe David was jealous of Elton’s success.
By all accounts, Elton did his share of “hooverizing.” In 1975, Elton was officially in the closet, although a lot of people knew otherwise. In one impossible to confirm story, a friend of PG was working in an Atlanta club called Encore, later known as Backstreet. One busy night, he was in a hurry to get somewhere, and bumped into someone. The person he knocked over was Elton John.
The infamous Rolling Stone interview was part of the damage. “Rock & roll has been really bringing me down lately. It’s in great danger of becoming an immobile, sterile fascist that constantly spews its propaganda on every arm of the media. …. I mean, disco music is great. I used disco to get my first Number One single [“Fame”] but it’s an escapist’s way out. It’s musical soma. Rock & roll too — it will occupy and destroy you that way. It lets in lower elements and shadows that I don’t think are necessary. Rock has always been the devil’s music. You can’t convince me that it isn’t.”
Cameron Crowe How about specifics? Is Mick Jagger evil? David Bowie “Mick himself? Oh Lord no. He’s not unlike Elton John, who represents the token queen — like Liberace used to. No, I don’t think Mick is evil at all. He represents the sort of harmless, bourgeois kind of evil that one can accept with a shrug…. Actually, I wonder … I think I might have been a bloody good Hitler. I’d be an excellent dictator. Very eccentric and quite mad.”
Playboy Magazine gave David another chance to talk about Hitler. “I’d love to enter politics. I will one day. I’d adore to be Prime Minister. And, yes, I believe very strongly in fascism.” “Rock stars are fascists, too. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars.” “#54: PLAYBOY: How so?” BOWIE: “Think about it. Look at some of his films and see how he moved. I think he was quite as good as Jagger. It’s astounding. And, boy, when he hit that stage, he worked an audience. Good God! He was no politician. He was a media artist himself. He used politics and theatrics and created this thing that governed and controlled the show for those 12 years. The world will never see his like.”
#77: PLAYBOY: “Last question. Do you believe and stand by everything you’ve said?” BOWIE: “Everything but the inflammatory remarks.” We don’t know whether a jab at Elton was inflammatory. “I consider myself responsible for a whole new school of pretensions–they know who they are. Don’t you, Elton? Just kidding. No, I’m not.”
Seven daily grams of coke (DB:AL, p.223) did not kill David Bowie. He soon moved on to make The Man Who Fell to Earth. People magazine helped out with the publicity. “No role could have suited David Bowie better in his first major movie than that of an inscrutable interplanetary traveler outfitted with human skin, sex organs, Ronald Reagan hair and humanoid pupils to slip in over his horizontal, mismatched feline slits.” Forty years before Donald Trump made the tangerine toupee cool, Ronald Reagan was prematurely orange. Pictures for this deplorable dive into hissyfit history are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The Six G-ds of Christianity
There is a discussion brewing in the Jesus Worship blogosphere on the question of “Is Christianity really monotheistic ”. This is in response to a post, on the subject of the unquestioning Christian .
There is a “motivational” poster, with the headline “Ten signs you are an unquestioning Christian”. One of these (either number one or ten) deals with monotheism. To wit: “You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of G-ds claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of your G-d.” Some writers are promising/threatening to write about all ten of these arguments, and the feature on monotheism is the first.
PG is a recovering Baptist, who is severely alienated from Jesus. He does suspect that there is a G-d, and is in no way an “atheist”. The tracts linked to above tend to break down the discussion to atheists vs. christians, which is highly misleading.
PG has been knocking around for some time the idea of a post about the six G-ds of Jesus Worshipers. The appearance of this series…at blogs that ban PG from commenting…has spurred him into action. Whether or not there will be more comments (from PG) remains to be seen.
Christianity claims to be a monotheistic religion. This means, there is only one G-d. In contrast, the Romans and Greeks had G-ds and G-ddesses galore, and the Hindus have literally millions of deities. In what was claimed by some as an advancement, the Jews worshiped one G-d. (Zoraroastrians are said to be monotheistic, and did it before the Jews. There may be others.)
One of the sacred tracts of Judaism and Christianity is the ten commandments . The first three relate to the concept of monotheism, and the proper way to talk about G-d.
1-Thou shalt have no other G-ds before me.
2-Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3-Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy G-d in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
As a side note, PG has heard something about the use of Lord as a name for G-d. The riff is that “Lord” was an expression for an English nobleman. When the Bible was translated by James I, his workers used the L word as a synonym for G-d. The words for G-d in the Greek and Hebrew texts that comprised the Bible do not translate as Lord…that word was inserted by the anglocentric workers of James I. This is something that PG read in a book by Tom Robbins, and has no other source for. It may, or may not be true. If it is, then it just might be a violation of the third commandment.
Getting back to monotheism, does Christianity live up to the first commandment? This may seem to be a silly question when you consider the concept of the trinity. At some point in the early days of Jesus Worship, a decision was made to split G-d into three parts. We now had the father, the son, and the holy ghost. (Which makes for a neat blessing…the father the son the holy ghost, whoever eats fastest gets the most) The first commandment is still in effect, but, well, you just have to understand. The Jews continued to worship one G-d, and when Mohammed started his franchise, he changed the name to Allah. In that version, there is no G-d but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.
Meanwhile, the Jesus Worshipers were good at converting and reproducing, and soon had a very popular religion. But was it one G-d only? The faith had a book of ancient texts that they call “the word of G-d”. The fact that it was written, copied, edited and translated by man did not stop folks. The first commandment would seem to prohibit this custom, but, you just have to believe.
PG is willing to concede the point that he doesn’t understand the concept of the Trinity. He thinks it is a concoction of the Council of Nicea, and a violation of the first commandment. This is something that seems to happen a lot with Christianity…to proclaim one thing as a rule, to apparently violate that rule, but have a clever explanation that few seem to understand.
This does not explain the other G-ds of Christianity. For this discussion, we will focus on three…the Bible, Satan, and Salvation.
The Catholic Church had a conference to establish a consistent canon for their church. This conference became known as the Council of Nicea. (This conference is where the concept of the Triune G-d was formulated.) The texts in use by the church at the time were collected in one book. Some texts were not used, and there is a good possibility that the texts that were used were edited. This committee effort became known as the Bible.
PG got into a twitter discussion recently. It turns out that PG does not know much about the Council of Nicea. There were other meetings at this time, and after a while a standardized canon was established for the Christian religion. Few doubt that the Bible was curated by man.
During the protestant reformation, the new churches needed a source for their authority over the people. It was during this time that the concept of the Bible as the “Word of G-d” became known. This in effect made a G-d out of a book. This is in direct defiance of the First Commandment, which teaches to have no other G-d before you.
The book has been interpreted into many languages, and the interpretations have been interpreted. The star of the New Testament, Jesus, spoke Aramaic. His words were recorded, in Greek, many years after he *died*. Any quote from Jesus has been translated at least twice. This is from texts that were written many years after he lived. And yet, people talk about what Jesus taught, and have confidence, that they know what they are talking about. (The only things we know about Jesus is what the Council of Nicea chose to tell us.)
At some point, the idea began to float around that the Bible was not only the word of G-d, but that it was inerrant…that is, without errors. This would presume that no body in the chain of production made a mistake. This includes a scribe copying a text, and a Catholic editor assembling a canon. Nobody translating ancient languages, from ragged source materials, made a mistake. The people who make this claim seem to assume that they have a perfect understanding of this text. Is it a coincidence that the spell check suggestion for inerrant is ignorant?
This one is too blatant to let slide. When you declare a text to be the “word of G-d”, you are making a G-d out of a book. There is a semantic argument to be made… you can say that this isn’t worship. Lets say it out loud… calling the Bible the “word of G-d” makes a G-d out of a book, in violation of the First Commandment. This is not monotheism.
A quick look at the way Satan is treated by the church shows a curious similarity to worship. Yes, it is backhanded worship, and lots of negative things are said about Beelzebub. He with the horns and tail is given credit for all kinds of powers, and needs to be fought (with human collateral damage). Yes, Jesus Worshipers give the Devil his due, and then some.
The last “G-d” that we will look at today is Salvation, or the Christian scheme for life after death. Anyone living in the USA has heard this plan a thousand times, and many agree with it. Some do not agree with it. It is none of your business how PG feels. (Your guess is probably correct.)
What is undeniable is the importance placed on salvation in Christianity. It is discussed in every church meeting, often at top volume, and with dramatics that would shame a ham actor. Salvation is said to justify all the rudeness and verbal abuse that Jesus Worshiper inflict on their neighbors. If you do not agree with the concept of Salvation, you have no business belonging to a Christian Church.
Does this hysterical emphasis on Salvation make a G-d out of the concept? As with the Bible and Satan, it is a matter of perspective. A good argument could be made that Jesus Worshipers treat these three items with G-d like devotion, and make G-ds out of them.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Monetizing Our Own Content
“The Worse It Gets, the Closer We Are to Renovation”
Exposing Franklin Baxley Part 1: Drug Dealing Felon Arrested And Charged With Felony Assault For Attacking Woman With No Contact Order Against Him
Exposing Franklin Baxley Part 2: Franklin Is Threatening Everyone Who Disagrees With His Narrative, Is Suggesting He Would Leave The Country To Have An Alibi While He Has Uncle Turtleboy Murdered, Isn’t Doing His “Dindonuffin” Story Any Favors
Inside Edition Cancelled On Franklin Baxley After Turtle Riders Flooded Them With Phone Calls Exposing His Woman-Beating, Drug Dealing Past
Exposing Franklin Baxley Part 4: Domestic Abuser Uses Non-Profit To Make Six Figure Salary, Gets Hired By Needham Women’s Group
Exposing Franklin Baxley Part 5: Heroin Dealer Sets Up Stripper Girlfriend To Get Beaten While He Films Because She Stole Drugs From Him
Franklin Baxley Arrested On Drug Trafficking Charges
Man in Attleboro dog park dispute arrested on drug trafficking charges
@existentialcoms Also, apparantly today is #NationalGrammarDay, a day for everyone out there who likes to feel smug that they memorized the “correct” set of made up rules. Yes, your smugness is based on a fundamental misunderstanding, but hey, at least it makes you happy.
Racism and the American Pit Bull ~ Wittgenstein Plays Scrabble
WABE’s Jim Burress has lost his voice and isn’t sure if he’ll ever get it back
Landmark Diner Jr. Has Closed on Cheshire Bridge Road
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Why ‘ji32k7au4a83’ Is a Remarkably Common Password
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What Happens to All Those Beads After Mardi Gras?
Barstool Sports Claimed To Be Copyright Owners Of Dog Park Diane Video Preventing Us From Monetizing Our Own Content
Social Justice Bard and The Curious Case of the Anti Identity Politics
The B.E.E. Podcast – 3/8/19 – Laura Bickford – GOLD
How Should We Talk About the Israel Lobby’s Power?
March 7, 1969: CBS News “The Homosexuals” hosted by Mike Wallace
Thoughts From Our Manager His own words about our clientele.
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Brian Kemp Faces Investigation by House Panel
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“The Scream” Animated to the Sound of Pink Floyd
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NY Post Writer Chris Perez Calls Us “Racist” For Looking In To Franklin Baxley, Refuses To Correct Story Because He Has Dubbed It “Factually Accurate”
Columbus teen is going to prison – over a pair of sneakers
Oh, Bloody Hell BackStory’s History of Profanity in America @chamblee54 @QuoteResearch who said “So, you’re the man who can’t spell ‘fuck.'” @BackStoryRadio says Tallulah Bankhead google says Dorothy Parker There is a consensus that it was said to Norman Mailer
“The ability to say things that are stupid and wrong is essential to the advancement of knowledge.” Mr. Sullivan is not affected by false modesty.
How to Swear Like a 19th-Century Sailor
Open Letter to the University of Illinois
Friedrich Nietzsche ~ The ArtsXchange ~ Philosophy of the world – The Shaggs
The WORST Album Ever Made ~ Holy rage at the ‘Spring ~ Bob Richardson
Janis Joplin’s Final Interview ~ Exposing Franklin Baxley ~ guily
@htmlmencken Dumb. Socialism is actually screaming at the imperfectly woke online in order to build a society of immaculate, trope-free, morally hygienic individuals. ~ ” we want context so that maybe we can excuse it.” No. I refuse to believe that Nathan just said NL out of the clear blue sky with no provocation. Maybe it does not justify what he said, but it can explain why he said it. For all we know, Laurel said something worse. ~ @ChrchCurmudgeon Whenever I’m asked to be a pallbearer, I hope that they have light bier at the funeral. ~ @HLMenckenBot The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. ~ @TitaniaMcGrath Activist. Healer. Radical intersectionalist poet. Selfless and brave. Buy my book. @TitaniaMcGrath If you only have sex with people you find attractive, you might want to ask yourself why you’re such a superficial bigot. ~ No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant. #Nietzsche Liberalism is the transformation of mankind into cattle. #Nietzsche Good prose is written only face to face with poetry. #Nietzsche Faith means not wanting to know what is true. #Nietzsche Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. #Nietzsche ~ Once, when Lenny Bruce was busted, the police decided to make everyone in the audience show identification. George Carlin was in the audience. He made a scene about it, and was arrested. When Lenny Bruce was performing in London, he used all the naughty words that got him in trouble in America. Nobody cared. However, he said something about cigarettes, and said lung cancer. A man in the audience stood up. “He said cancer. I can’t believe he said that word.” The man, and his party, walked out of the performance. source The London story was also in:souce ~ @WernerTwertzog Thank you for asking, my pronoun is “thou.” ~ We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel ~ you could write a poem, but what would rhyme with epistemological crisis? ~ this poem was read at the red light cafe on March 5. After it was over, someone came up to PG and said that you don’t hear villanelles very often.
edith in his bed swallowed by the sky
so the power and the glory survive
sounds like applause or just a dream to fly
a ghost of aviation samurai
they’ll eat a working girl like her alive
edith in his bed swallowed by the sky
rousseau paints a jungle flower magpie
a cellar full of antique dolls arrive
sounds like applause or just a dream to fly
snow gathers where bolts of lace gentrify
her impossibly gentle hands revive
edith in his bed swallowed by the sky
rent me a grand piano nellie bly
all emotions and abstractions connive
sounds like applause or just a dream to fly
tomorrow give me one good reason why
wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive
edith in his bed swallowed by the sky
sounds like applause or just a dream to fly
The Library of Congress supplies the pictures for today’s frolic. “Group singing hymns at the opening of the Sunday school. While there are no churches on the project there are five or six in the area close by. This one is just off the project and is attended by many project members. Dailey, West Virginia” Arthur Rothstein took the pictures in December, 1941. ~ selah
Millard Fillmore And Oscar Wilde In Atlanta
This afternoon’s post at chamblee54 noted an 1854 visit by former President Millard Fillmore. This was brought to the attention of another history minded blog, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub. The result was some details about the visit, Millard Fillmore, live on Peachtree Street, 1854. The material below is borrowed from that post.
Two years after the Whigs refused to nominate Fillmore for a term of his own, he was out touring the country? Several accounts explain that Fillmore and his wife Abigail wanted to tour the U.S. after his presidency. Unfortunately, she died shortly after he left office. He pined through the rest of 1853, but by February 1854 had decided to tour by himself, without his children, accompanied by friends he could persuade to join him.
That same month, Fillmore decided to take the trip southward that he and Abigail had not been able to take. Given the timing, some observers believed that Fillmore had a political motive in making the journey. They suspected that he might be planning to speak out against the Nebraska Bill [proposed by Illinois’s U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas]. Others were convinced that it was a leisure tour. But whatever Fillmore’s intentions may have been, his speeches to southern audiences were relatively neutral. He restated his faith in the [Missouri] Compromise, but he spent most of his time enjoying a series of receptions, dinners, and parades in his honor throughout the region. A marching band escorted him through the streets of Louisville, Kentucky. Girls scattered his path with flowers in Montgomery, Alabama. A row of trains blew their whistles in greeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Fillmore returned home refreshed and with renewed faith in his fellow Americans. (This paragraph is from Alison Behnke, Millard Fillmore (a child’s history of the man), 2005, page 92.)
By late February 1854 Fillmore had resumed his plans to travel. He perceived that a southern trip would do him good and that the journey would divert his mind from the loss of Abigail. … Fillmore hoped Francis Granger, John P. Kennedy, and Washington Irving would go with him on the trip. Granger lost interest, and Irving was in no mood for politics. …
En route to Atlanta from Augusta on the Georgia Railroad, they stopped at Greensboro where a large crowd of teachers and students of the Female College greeted Fillmore and Kennedy. They dined at Madison. At Stone Mountain an escort committee from Atlanta met them.
At the Atlanta Depot a novel reception welcomed them. A large number of locomotives were present with their steam up. When the Augusta engineer signaled their arrival they all opened up their valves and whistled out a welcome the like of which, reported a newspaper, “no mortal man had heard before.” The shouts from the crowd and locomotive whistles were deafening to one reporter. By carriage the party went from the depot to the Atlanta Hotel where a reception was held.
Fillmore had become hoarse. Nonetheless, he managed to say that he was impressed by the large population and that he had heard that it was a beautiful village in the center of the state. He also admonished the state legislature to to take note “of the array of female loveliness before me” seated at the reception. If they did so, he joked, they wouldn’t hesitate to locate the state capital at Atlanta. At that time the capital was at Milledgeville. Atlanta became the capital in 1877. (This section is from Robert J. Scarry, Millard Fillmore, 1982, pages 247-252 variously.)
A few months later, on October 16, 1854, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland. On July 4, 1882, Mr. Wilde gave a talk at De Give’s Opera House in Atlanta GA. What happened next is described on page 201 of Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann.
Mr. Wilde was accompanied by his agent, J.S. Vail, and a valet, W.M. Traquair. Mr. Vail bought three train tickets for Savannah, the next stop on the tour. The Pullman agent told Mr. Wilde that black people were not allowed to ride in sleeper car berths. Mr. Wilde said that Mr. Traquair had traveled with him throughout the South without incident. The Pullman agent said the next stop was in Jonesboro GA. If people in Jonesboro saw a black man in the car, then they would attack the train. Mr. Wilde gave in, and Mr. Traquair traveled in another part of the train.
This is a repost. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Social Justice Dogpile
Another Story About Race was the story of a facebook conversation. It got ugly after the story was published. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Kevin Allison Luther, the hundreds of thousands who died in the Civil War knew the full weight and meaning of that word. The millions who fought through the Civil Rights movement in the mid-century knew the full weight and meaning of that word. I’m not sure precisely which year Wanda’s story is set, but Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, the Central Park Five… these were stories in the news in all of our lifetimes. Does “country boy” mean “imbecile”? My father is from Meridian, Mississippi. His parents, my grandparents, were people of very modest means and did not go to the best schools. Other Allisons, cousins of my grandfather, were from the Bayou country in Louisiana. Everyone in my family has always known the full weight and meaning of that word. Because we’re Americans. Rich, poor, educated, uneducated, city person, country person… we all know that word and we know it deep down in our souls.
To pretend that calling someone out for engaging in racism is as dehumanizing as racism itself is a fantasy. It ignores all of history and the societal power dynamics we’re still swimming in. And to pretend that RISK! engages in censorship because we don’t present the “other side of the story” is also some sort of mind game. If this guy “Nathan” wanted to come on the show and could speak about these same events with the level of self-awareness and emotional intelligence we look for in the stories we present on the show, he’d be more than welcome to. We see you. We hear you. And what you’re selling, we ain’t buying.
Luther Mckinnon “To pretend that calling someone out for engaging in racism is as dehumanizing as racism itself is a fantasy.” “to pretend that RISK! engages in censorship because we don’t present the “other side of the story” I have said neither of those things. I am concerned about the dehumanizing effect of all labels, both politically correct and incorrect.
Not everyone is as excited about the magic word as you are. POC use it all the time. We still don’t know what Laurel said to Nathan, to goad him into saying something he would regret. Maybe an 18 year old, put under enough pressure, gave in and said the magic word. We have not heard that part of the story, and apparently never will. I am not selling anything. I am trying to explain why I feel the way I do. You are entitled to your opinion.
SugaBusshh Smith Hey RISK!; we all know what Luther is about now. The man is an unapologetic racist. Do you really wish to give the man even more of a platform? I’m not about eliminating free speech, but I don’t believe hate speech like what Luther propagates needs any more of a platform then the presidency.I do wish someone would choose to hit the off button on this guy because his agenda is more than obvious. He is not a casual listener of the show wishing to take part in meaningful discussion. He wishes to spill vile and venom and spread his racist ideology on your group. It’s your choice of course to let him continue this nonsense, but for the mental well being of the rest of us; i truly hope you don’t.
It is odd to be called “unapologetic racist” after this thread. At no time did I say anything derogatory about people of color. I said two things: I asked for details about the Nathan-Laurel conversation. I said that labeling people, as racist, was dehumanizing. People feel self righteous about abusing their neighbor over racial values. If someone does not like your racial values, they feel virtuous in attacking you. If you criticize the white savior, you are opening yourself up to abuse.
Have you ever heard that racism is institutional? That you cannot be racist if you don’t have power? This discussion is not about economic opportunity, access to education or housing, or police brutality. This thread is about an 18 year old kid, who said a bad word. When I ask, 17 years later, if maybe he was goaded into saying this bad word, I am labeled a racist. Maybe if I quit asking for details about this incident, I will quit being called a racist. I somehow doubt it.
Have you ever heard someone say “If you don’t like being called a racist, quit being one.”? Don’t believe it. This incident took place 17 years ago. We know nothing of the way Nathan has lived his life. And yet, because he said one word, 17 years ago, he is considered a bigot. Nobody gives a damn what he thinks. Nathan is less than human, because he said one word, during a heated argument.
The psychology of anti racism is twisted. It is similar to the way homophobia works. It is well known that many homophobes are secretly gay, and not happy about it. To take attention away from their own unresolved issues, the lash out at others who they perceive to be faggots. It is an ugly situation, and yet many homophobes feel virtuous in their hatred.
Many people who call others racist are worried about their own racial values. They are afraid that they might be racist. To assure themselves that they are not racist, they lash out at others that they perceive as being racist. The standards of what is considered racist get lower everyday.
On a more personal level, this has been a tough conversation. It is one thing when someone you have never met, who you don’t care about, calls you a racist online. Kevin Allison is someone who produces a remarkable show, RISK. I have enjoyed many episodes online, and had the privilege of attending a live show last fall. I have, until now, had a great deal of respect for Kevin. It is very discouraging to see him participate in an internet dogpile. I will probably continue to listen to RISK, but I will always know about this incident.
Another Story About Race
Hard Knocks #1021 was a recent episode of the RISK podcast. At 46:00, we hear “Black Girl Magic” by Wanda Bowser. There are four characters, three white, one black. One of the three women is black, and the man is white. It begins with Brittany getting Wanda and Nathan to hook up, with Brittany watching. Soon Wanda and Nathan spend lots of time together. Good times are had.
One night, Wanda gets a phone call from Brittany. Nathan got in a heated argument with Laurel, and called her N$$$$$ Lover. Brittany, for some reason, felt the need to tell Wanda about this. Wanda avoids Nathan, until one night when he shows up. After an uncomfortable conversation, “I accepted his fuck boy apology and continue hooking up with him.” This goes on for a while, until Nathan finds a white lady that he likes better. Nathan drops out of school, and Wanda goes on with her life. There are more details to the story. If you like, you can use the link to hear the entire story.
Luther McKinnon Luther Mckinnon “I just listened to Wanda Bowser’s story, and I have questions. What was the context of Nathan saying NL to that girl? And why did Wanda’s gossip happy so-called friend have to tell Wanda, and everybody else?” I foolishly made a comment on facebook. If you want to see the complete comment thread, use the link above.
Wanda Wilson Bowser “Brittany was a pot stirrer. It was something I didn’t realize about her until I was older and could look back at those “friendships” reflectively. I know now that she had deep insecurities as a person and to feel better about herself, she wanted other people to hurt. She damn sure wasn’t telling me to protect my feelings, but she wanted my reaction. We ended up having a big falling out months later about something else and now, 17 years after the fact, we’ve gotten over our shared history and are still politely acquainted as Facebook friends.”
There were a few more comments back and forth. I never did learn the context of Nathan saying NL. Did Laurel lead him on? Was Brittany involved somehow, other than spreading toxic gossip? Did country boy Nathan understand just how bad the magic word was? These issues were never addressed. I was going to let the matter slide, until a fresh round of comments came in.
Raymond Christian Yea this listening to the other side crap has become an over used trop as if any one gives a damn what a bigots motivation is Luther Mckinnon So you are going to label Nathan a bigot because of one comment? Raymond Christian yes, yes I am !!!! Raymond Christian I hope no one bothers to say “but you don’t know whats in his heart” You can only judge peoples actions and words not some cosmic idea about whats in their brain and cant be seen! Luther Mckinnon So, we have a person. A country boy, who wound up hooking up with a black girl. Some how or another, he used the magic word in a conversation. When he uses the magic word, he is no longer a human being worthy of respect. He is a bigot. Did Laurel put words in his mouth? What did she say to get him to say the magic word? Maybe Laurel, and definitely Brittany, are the bigots in this story? If we use the standards of contemporary social justice, dating POC is not a defense against charges of racism. Have Laurel or Brittany ever used the magic word?
We don’t know much about Nathan. He was a tobacco chewing country boy, who had a fling with a black girl. He said the magic word. Suddenly, he is a bigot periah. Nothing else about him matters. He is heard saying a word one time, and he is less of a human being.
Wanda says that the magic word reminds her “no matter the content of my character, I am considered less than a person.” This is what happens when you label a person a racist. That person is the other. You are no longer worthy of your humanity. This label can be applied for the flimsiest of reasons. Often, the person applying the label is just as bigoted.
RISK prides itself on being uncensored. This is one issue that challenges this boast. If a story involves racial conflict, the default is to believe the POC. If a white person falls out of line, then they are deemed a racist. There are no other circumstances considered. They are to be treated as less than human. This orthodoxy must not be challenged. If you challenge this taboo, then you too are considered less than human. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
C.S. Lewis
There was a facebook link to a feature, Ayn Rand Really, Really Hated C.S. Lewis. It turns out to be verbatim droppings from Ayn Rand’s Marginalia : Her Critical Comments on the Writings of over Twenty Authors. If you are interested in details, there are the links. 55% of the comments were one-star. This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress.
Miss Rand has read more C.S. Lewis than PG. There was a copy of a CSL work at a yard sale once, which PG invested a quarter in. He read as far as the appearance of a pig named trufflehunter. Maybe it was a bad day for books, but PG put CSL down, never to make another attempt.
There was a sixth grade english teacher at Ashford Park named Mrs. Ruff. Lots of people talked about how sweet she was, but PG was not impressed. One day, between handing out mimeographed copies of poems to be memorized, Mrs. Ruff started to talk about Narnia. It was a fantastic and amazing story. With a hint of primness, she told the class that Narnia was really about Jesus.
Douche
Backstory recently presented a feature, Cleanliness in America. As the title might suggest, it is about cleanliness. The location of this concept with regard to G-dliness was not discussed. While researching this story, a listener named Micheal Gambil sent a letter to the studio. This letter was read as part of the broadcast.
“This one is going to be great! My comment/suggestion may sound a little strange, but I was having a talk with my 70 year old aunt regarding female hygiene recently. She is still a believer in what is known as doucheing. YUCK! It got awkward…but it really made me think about the history of “lady products”. Flower scented sprays etc…I think there has been change on this issue. Or not…maybe it is just me and my quasi-hippy friends!”
Douching became popular in the nineteenth century. It was originally thought to be useful as contraception. As other methods of controlling fertility became available, douching became more of a cosmetic item. The corporate marketers are good at creating demand for a product.
More recently, the dangers of using this product have come to light. This awareness came into public consciousness at roughly the same time that douche started to be used as an insult. No one knows if the two developments are connected.
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is written like David Foster Wallace.
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